The Louvre

 Remember Paris?  Well, I never finished putting all the pictures on the blog, so I'm trying to do it now.  Feel free to ignore all this.  After we relaxed in the Tuilleries and Ari sailed her sailboat, it was about 4 in the afternoon.  Golda really wanted to go to the Louvre, and it was the day it's open late (Tuesday?)  Coco and Bill opted to go back to the apartment and the girls and I girded up our loins for a whirlwind visit to the most famous museum in the world. If you go, don't go in through the glass pyramid.  There is always a huge line there.  If you go to the Rue du Rivoli and go downstairs under the Louvre to the shops, you can walk right in any time.  I don't know why Rick Steves hasn't told everyone that!

We didn't have much time to look at the gallery shops because we knew we only had until 9:00 pm to see everything in the Louvre.  We started with the most famous works, the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa.  I told the girls that the Mona Lisa was tiny and unimpressive, and they agreed, but it was still exciting to see it in real life.  We really enjoyed the Flemish works, the Italian Renaissance halls, the countless depictions of the Crucifixion, Madonna and Child, etc.  Next time, I'm going to take a pen to mark the map.  Even though I knew where we were on the map, I kept losing track of where we had been.  Each hallway is a series of square rooms, so as you go through each square room, it's easy to forget which direction you came from.  That's how we kept circling back to the Polynesian fertility sculptures, which I'm sorry to say, we were not the least bit interested in!  I daresay we covered most of the Louvre exhibits to our satisfaction.  When we were shooed out at closing time, it was with regret that we didn't have more time, but also with gratitude because I could barely move.  The girls were exhausted, yes, but my back was about to break, I was sure of it.  When I sat down to rest, my muscles screamed at the change in position.  It was almost comical.  Plus, by the end, we were marching through with the camera at the ready.  When I said, "Famous!" and pointed, Golda took a picture.  The Louvre is not a one-day deal.  I used to go there several times a week and wander around.  Hopefully, all the girls will be back someday.  You have to plan on coming back, or trips are just too sad.  Our Louvre visit was a bit of a frenzy, especially when we dashed out to find a snack and felt like precious minutes were ticking away.  But we were able to spend a good five hours by taking advantage of the late closing, without donating a full day of our trip to the museum, so it was good.
  I was pleasantly surprised at how much Golda, Ruby and Ari liked the experience.  Ari kept talking about Vermeer, her "favorite artist."  She learned about him in school and repeatedly threw out facts about him and his work.  Sadly, the most famous Vermeer painting in the museum, I think it was Girl with a Pearl Earring, was on loan.  Ari was pretty sad.  I think we even took a picture of the empty wall where it should have been.

 Feast at Cana

 Famous!

 Famous!  The sister is checking the state of the pregnancy.

 Inside the pyramid.

 The Metro

 So many sculptures to see!  My girls are much more familiar with human anatomy than they were before this trip!